January 25 2010
In December 2009, Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia Gary Gray officially opened the Great Northern Highway upgrade at a ceremony in Warmun, northern Western Australia.
The opening ceremony was followed by a ribbon cutting at the Telegraph Creek Bridge site, where a 750-year-old boab tree was removed and transferred to Perth.
Team Savannah, a joint venture between Laing O'Rourke, BGC Contracting and AECOM, completed the project working at five site locations across a 200-kilometre section of the highway.
Mr Gray thanked the Team Savannah team at the official opening of the $116 million highway upgrade.
"The role of Team Savannah has been integral in the completion of this project," Mr Gray said. “I congratulate you on a job well done.
"The completion of this project is great news for the nearby remote communities who utilise the services in the regional centres of Kununurra and Halls Creek."
The project involved the reconstruction of 23 kilometres of the highway, a replacement bridge and construction of two new bridges in the remote Kimberley region.
"These works will improve road safety and accessibility for the 400 vehicles that use this highway every day," Mr Gray said. “They will also result in reduced freight and road user costs due to reduction of road closures during the wet season.
"In the past we have seen this road closed for up to 10 to 20 times per wet season for periods of four to eight hours at a time. These lengthy closures prevent access to remote Indigenous communities and disrupt the flow of traffic on this vital freight corridor to Australia's north."
Mr Gray said he was particularly pleased that the project generated employment for 100 people and created training and employment opportunities for a number of Indigenous trainees.
Laing O'Rourke Regional Manager (WA) Aidan Mullan said that from the beginning it was quite clear that the project was about more than just delivering vital infrastructure for the East Kimberley region.
"Main Roads selected a new type of collaborative contract model to ensure that the tight funding deadline of December 2009 to design and construct the project would be met, and that a number of other important objectives would be delivered," Aidan said.
"Integral to the success of the project was local and regional development; enhancing the skills of local people; satisfying the access needs of the community; delivering a value-for-money, innovative and high quality product, and safety for the travelling public and workforce.
“I am proud to say that Team Savannah has delivered on all these objectives, in spite of some significant logistical challenges."
Click here to read more about the Great Northern Highway project.
Great Northern Highway - going above and beyond traditional project delivery
Not only was the project delivered on time, but local and wider communities also received significant lasting legacies as a result. The project team:
- Provided a vegetable garden for the 'Healthy Eating' program at Waraluru Primary School at Halls Creek
- Concreted the bicycle track for the kids at the Warmun pre-primary school
- Provided Senior First Aid training to members of the Warmun community
- Achieved a significant reduction in the clearing footprint required for the project
- Initiated the gifting of the Gija Jumulu (boab) to Kings Park
- Supported the establishment of a local contractor at Warmun
- Exceeded local expenditure commitments by 30 per cent, and
- Received the intangible legacies of new relationships and friendships, and great Kimberley memories.
In September, Team Savannah received the Outstanding Contribution to Training and Employment of Aboriginal People award at the East Kimberley Aboriginal Achievement Awards, and was a finalist in the Trainee of the Year category.
